Sunday, 1 September 2013

Elderflower Champagne and Apple Cake

Sunday Afternoon Tease

This week my current husband cracked open the first bottle of his home brewed Elderflower Champagne. It was deliciously light, fizzy and alcoholic; what more can you ask from a drink?! It's difficult to tell what the alcohol content is, but an educated guess is that it is somewhere around a healthy 5%. A big well done to my CH on producing such a deliciously quaff-able home brew.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting a definite sniff of Autumn in the air; the cooler temperatures and first blackberries are strong indicators of the changing season. It won't be long before our apples are ready to be picked and eaten and this got me to thinking about making a scrummy apple cake.

I did a guest post a few weeks back over the pond at My Rural Mommy that featured my Kentish Apple Cake. I have been making this cake for many years, but I fancied experimenting a bit. I took my usual all-in-one Victoria Sandwich recipe and added some ground almonds and one chopped Bramley apple. I had the idea that I would drizzle the sponge cake with an elderflower syrup, but forgot to get a new elderflower cordial out of the freezer - doh! I filled the sponges with a cinnamon spiced cream cheese frosting, but the general verdict was that this was a bit too sweet. The cake was tasty, but needs tinkering with, so will update you on the new improved version

Can't wait to pick blackberries and make some pies and crumbles; makes me drool to think of pouring thick cold cream over hot crumble!

Happy to see you enjoying your Elderflower Champagne. We've just cracked open ours too.If you took original and final gravity readings you can work out your alcohol content. I put the maths for this on my blog post if you want it.Eliwww.elidonald.co.uk/blog